Had a bit of a lie in, down to breakfast around 09:00. Walked outside into glorious sunshine, temperature about 7C. Popped back to the castle to take some photos in the sun.
Walked back and around the corner and headed towards the Church of St Nicholas. We tend to visit churches when in Europe because some of the architecture and interiors are amazing. This was one of the more impressive ones. Full of marble columns, with each column housing a huge statue of a bishop, or angels and so on. Almost all had garnishings of gold, and the pulpit was similarly full of bling. I do have a bit of a problem with this though; did someone say “How can we serve you Oh Lord?” To which he replied “Tell you what, build me a load of big-arsed churches and fill them with gold and silver stuff, statues and paintings, that’ll do”.
Out of the church and down the road, back to the Charles Bridge and more photos but this time with the sun out. Wandered through the narrow streets, a lot of the buildings had paintings or etchings or statues on them and were very well maintained. Quite a few tourists now. Carried on to the Astronomical Clock and the old town square. I had wanted to get there for 11:00 to see it chime, but Song decided to stop and look in every jewellery shop window and there were quite a few.
We got to the clock around 11:30 so wandered around the old town square. There were lots of stalls selling food and touristy stuff and the crowd started to build up. We got a good position in front of the clock and waited 10 minutes until it chimed. By now the crowd had grown to a couple of thousand. There were a few statues that moved which was cute, and a couple of doors above the clock opened and more figures moved. Unfortunately I was too busy videoing the others to see it so we’ll have to go back. I couldn’t figure out how to tell the time, as far as I could tell it was 10 past Jupiter.
Walked around the area a bit and stumbled upon the main shopping street so had a look up and down, then went looking for a cafe mentioned in The Age but couldn’t find it, so ended up in another Paul’s French cafe and had a baguette and a cake each. Sat for a while longer , we’d really been on the go since we started the holiday so we could slow down a bit for a few days. Full up, we set off again towards an antique shop mentioned in the Lonely Planet book. Found it but it was a bit disappointing, so just wandered around the area looking in every antique and jewellery shop in Prague. Carried on meandering around, the city is very beautiful, the buildings quite grand.
Eventually had enough, especially since we still had 2 full days, so took the train and tram back to the hotel. However, I felt it was beer O’clock so went round the corner to a restaurant and ordered a dark beer. Sat at the top of the Nerodova road, the domes of St Nicholas church in front of me and Segwaying tourists swooping past, I was in a happy place.
More sights tomorrow.
Walked 15.72 Km today.
